In the processing of certain fruits, such as, for example, in the preparation of pears for drying, it has heretofore been necessary to utilize hand labor for preliminary processing. Thus, in the example, pears being prepared for drying have had their calyx portions removed and the pears have been split into halves with hand labor.
So far as is now known to us, no one has heretofore succeeded in producing machinery adapted to automatically and sequentially remove the calyx regions and substantially simultaneously halve pears.